Shabazz' recruitment and Brandon Knight

[UCHuskies08]

My memory is hazy on this one. I remember there being a lot of discussion in 2011 about Napier vs. Knight because Knight had us on his list but ultimately chose UK, and we got Napier that offseason to reclassify and join us. I forget, did we recruit Napier after Brandon Knight chose UK, or was Napier already in the fold at that point?

Either way, it could not have worked out better for us.

 

[RoderickSpode]

I believe we got Napier after missing out on Joseph, Knight, Lamb (Doron, not Plastic Man) and Selby. People were lining up to jump off ledges.

 

[husky99]

I believe we got Napier after missing out on Joseph, Knight, Lamb (Doron, not Plastic Man) and Selby. People were lining up to jump off ledges.

I was one of them...thought Joseph or Selby was was picking uconn

 

[RyMaN600]

I believe we got Napier after missing out on Joseph, Knight, Lamb (Doron, not Plastic Man) and Selby. People were lining up to jump off ledges.

This is why I pay absolutely no attention to recruiting.

 

[specialisthusky]

This is why I pay absolutely no attention to recruiting.

After winning in 2011 I completely stopped following recruiting, precisely because I was convinced that class of Shabazz Roscoe Jeremy Giff and Olander was not up to the "Uconn standard." Talk about being stupid.

 

[auror]

Someone said Napier always wanted to go UConn, Calhoun might have known that and knew he could get him to reclassify if we whiffed on all the others. If not, he could have just come the next year naturally. Doesn't have to be an A or B situation.

 

[aceboon]

I'm pretty sure Napier committed while they were still going after Knight and possibly Joseph. And yea, there were posters calling for the firing of LaFleur and Sellers, pretty much the same handringing and crying that we saw over the summer when recruits went elsewhere. Just like then, we'll be more than fine.

 

[johnhuskies95]

Knight committed to Kentucky about two weeks after Napier committed to UConn. For months though, it was considered to be a sure thing that Knight was gonna go to Kentucky.

IIRC, the day before Knight's announcement, Zags ran a story with a "inside source" that claimed that UConn had a real shot at getting Knight, and people on this board were briefly excited about the possibility of landing Knight in addition to Napier.

 

[UConn5]

Yup, I never thought we were gonna get Knight but I did think we would get one of those guys. I remember being extremely worried about missing out on that group and about future success...oops.

 

[tzznandrew]

Recruiting matters: but it's who you get and not the number of stars attached to their name.

Our staff has done a wonderful job of mixing high level recruits that usually pan out (Rudy, Caron) with under the radar types who are better than people realized.

Some of this, though, isn't really recruiting, and the credit should go to the coaching staff. They've made recruits like Hilton Armstrong millionaires.

 

[Kitaman]

I expect that we will be posting a similar thread when Samuel is a Senior.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

My memory is hazy on this one. I remember there being a lot of discussion in 2011 about Napier vs. Knight because Knight had us on his list but ultimately chose UK, and we got Napier that offseason to reclassify and join us. I forget, did we recruit Napier after Brandon Knight chose UK, or was Napier already in the fold at that point?

Either way, it could not have worked out better for us.

Napier was verbally in the fold but set to do a year of postgrad before entering college. JC loved him but some of the then assistants weren't as sold (not that it would have mattered). SN's AAU coach at that time felt he needed another year for his body to grow. After we lost out on everyone both Shabazz and Olander changed their recruiting year to 2010 in order to be able to enroll for the 2010-2011 year.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

I believe we got Napier after missing out on Joseph, Knight, Lamb (Doron, not Plastic Man) and Selby. People were lining up to jump off ledges.

That is pretty much what happened (although JC's plan was to land Napier anyway, after a year of postgrad). The ledge jumping got very serious once Majok entered the draft. I will never forget the hundreds of posts from a) the two PC fan high school kids who felt they were recruiting experts and continually pointed out that we had sunk into an abyss that we could never climb out of and b) the UConn fans who felt that with the roster we had to look forward to for 2010-2011 that we were as dead as those PC kids had claimed. The biggest joke was that we wouldn't have enough size if AO had to play center with Roscoe at the four.

 

[RyMaN600]

I never really paid that much attention to recruiting in the first place, but after the 2011 title I swore it off completely, and Napier's legendary status after being a recruiting afterthought cements it.

 

[mauconnfan]

So lucky the dice rolled on this one….unbelievable huh?

 

[dante]

Calimari said in an interview that he recruited a lot of our players? did anybody see that and what did he mean by that?

 

[3uconn]

Calimari said in an interview that he recruited a lot of our players? did anybody see that and what did he mean by that?

I'm pretty sure he recruited Daniels for a little while. Also, I believe he had some interest in Napier.